Top positive review

If you ever saw a picture of Lawrence De Maria's Alton Rhode, the protagonist of "Capriati's Blood," it might come with a caption "Generic Fictional PI." Rhode's character fits the typical gumshoe resume to a T, down to the last cliche. He's an ex-cop with a biting, sarcastic wit, struggling financially, with a penchant for beautiful women and a tendency to find himself the target of a stray bullet or fist every few chapters. In fact, although I just finished "Capriati's Blood" a few days ago, the only thing I remember about his character is that he either went to bed with or was propositioned by every female character under retirement age in the book. But, although Rhode's character is very familiar, author De Maria make the book original enough in other ways so that it’s a fairly enjoyable read as a whole.

Rhode operates in Staten Island, a borough of New York that's rarely the setting for books of any sort, and he's managed to make the acquaintance of about everyone important on both sides of the law on the island. Rhode lands a very familiar type of case, finding the long missing ex-boyfriend of an attractive actress named Ellen James, with a most unexpected twist. Ellen has a daughter by the titular Mr. Capriati, who ran out on her 14 years earlier, and their daughter has cancer. Further, Capriati may well be the only matching bone marrow donor they can locate in time. Since Capriati went to college on Staten Island, Ellen decides to hire a local PI to dig into his background.

Needless to say, there's more to the case than first meets the eye. It seems that Capriati was friends in college with the man who's now the head of the local Italian mob and that Capriati's disappearance may have a mob connection. And, not surprisingly the investigation results in attacks on Rhode and a dead body turning up. However, despite the familiar elements, the solution to the mystery is quite unusual, involving a twist that I both completely didn’t see coming and that I can’t recall having seen before. Plus, Rhode proves to be a shrewd, methodical investigator and not merely someone who stumbles around for a few chapters until the case solves itself.

“Capriati’s Blood” offers some other reading pleasures as well. Author De Maria is a former journalist who got his start on a Staten Island newspaper (his first assignment, at the local courthouse, wound up with him meeting Roy Cohn and John Gotti), and the author’s knowledge of the borough shows up in some highly entertaining descriptions in the book. I especially enjoyed the scenes set in a local pub that the local cops and mobsters both frequented, often literally bumping into each other. Also, as befits a wise-cracking private eye, the author gives character Rhode a lot of clever quips and putdowns.

Of course, those quips and putdowns come at the expense of a couple of highly convenient foils. De Maria goes out of his way to create a couple of obnoxious jerks, a college professor and a medical bureaucrat, whose only function in the book seems to be to serve as Rhode’s verbal punching bags. Those two buffoons are merely part of a larger pattern in the book in which situations resolve themselves in highly unlikely and even more highly convenient manners for Rhode. In particular, the manner in which Rhode gets through his final showdown with the book’s villain is the literary equivalent of air escaping a leaking balloon.

Overall, the clever central mystery, the wit, and the evocative descriptions all through the book make “Capriati’s Blood” an enjoyable read, despite the stock characters and ridiculous contrivance at the end. I sense that the author wanted to keep this book short (it is barely over 200 pages) and, for that reason, took some shortcuts. Since “Capriati’s Blood” is the first in a series of Rhode novels (none of the others of which I have read), this just might be some growing pains on the author’s, and the character’s part. As for the present book, “Capriati’s Blood” may be formulaic, but De Maria does a good job of following the formula.

Top critical review

This is a solid whodunnit with a PI, Alton Rhode who is somewhat reminiscent of Chandler's Phillip Marlowe -- the noble PI who goes out on a limb to save a damsel in distress. In this case it is a pair of damsels, mother and daughter. He gets beat up a lot by gangs of thugs, etc. Nicely written, I would read another in this series

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If you ever saw a picture of Lawrence De Maria's Alton Rhode, the protagonist of "Capriati's Blood," it might come with a caption "Generic Fictional PI." Rhode's character fits the typical gumshoe resume to a T, down to the last cliche. He's an ex-cop with a biting, sarcastic wit, struggling financially, with a penchant for beautiful women and a tendency to find himself the target of a stray bullet or fist every few chapters. In fact, although I just finished "Capriati's Blood" a few days ago, the only thing I remember about his character is that he either went to bed with or was propositioned by every female character under retirement age in the book. But, although Rhode's character is very familiar, author De Maria make the book original enough in other ways so that it’s a fairly enjoyable read as a whole.

Rhode operates in Staten Island, a borough of New York that's rarely the setting for books of any sort, and he's managed to make the acquaintance of about everyone important on both sides of the law on the island. Rhode lands a very familiar type of case, finding the long missing ex-boyfriend of an attractive actress named Ellen James, with a most unexpected twist. Ellen has a daughter by the titular Mr. Capriati, who ran out on her 14 years earlier, and their daughter has cancer. Further, Capriati may well be the only matching bone marrow donor they can locate in time. Since Capriati went to college on Staten Island, Ellen decides to hire a local PI to dig into his background.

Needless to say, there's more to the case than first meets the eye. It seems that Capriati was friends in college with the man who's now the head of the local Italian mob and that Capriati's disappearance may have a mob connection. And, not surprisingly the investigation results in attacks on Rhode and a dead body turning up. However, despite the familiar elements, the solution to the mystery is quite unusual, involving a twist that I both completely didn’t see coming and that I can’t recall having seen before. Plus, Rhode proves to be a shrewd, methodical investigator and not merely someone who stumbles around for a few chapters until the case solves itself.

“Capriati’s Blood” offers some other reading pleasures as well. Author De Maria is a former journalist who got his start on a Staten Island newspaper (his first assignment, at the local courthouse, wound up with him meeting Roy Cohn and John Gotti), and the author’s knowledge of the borough shows up in some highly entertaining descriptions in the book. I especially enjoyed the scenes set in a local pub that the local cops and mobsters both frequented, often literally bumping into each other. Also, as befits a wise-cracking private eye, the author gives character Rhode a lot of clever quips and putdowns.

Of course, those quips and putdowns come at the expense of a couple of highly convenient foils. De Maria goes out of his way to create a couple of obnoxious jerks, a college professor and a medical bureaucrat, whose only function in the book seems to be to serve as Rhode’s verbal punching bags. Those two buffoons are merely part of a larger pattern in the book in which situations resolve themselves in highly unlikely and even more highly convenient manners for Rhode. In particular, the manner in which Rhode gets through his final showdown with the book’s villain is the literary equivalent of air escaping a leaking balloon.

Overall, the clever central mystery, the wit, and the evocative descriptions all through the book make “Capriati’s Blood” an enjoyable read, despite the stock characters and ridiculous contrivance at the end. I sense that the author wanted to keep this book short (it is barely over 200 pages) and, for that reason, took some shortcuts. Since “Capriati’s Blood” is the first in a series of Rhode novels (none of the others of which I have read), this just might be some growing pains on the author’s, and the character’s part. As for the present book, “Capriati’s Blood” may be formulaic, but De Maria does a good job of following the formula.

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This is the third of Demaria's novels I've read (second Alton Rhode), and he's continued to entertain with witty, plausible adventures for his protagonist. Local color and quirky supporting characters, in a variety of settings - particularly Staten Island - ground the scenes in comfortable familiarity until flashes of brutality and unforeseeable plot twists jar the reader back into the noir theme.An engaging page-turner, Capriati's Blood gets 4 stars instead of 5 because the author introduced two love interests for his wisecracking detective. I found this a bit awkward, to the point of questioning whether at least one was contrived raciness. Neither subplot harmed the story, but the too-easy infatuations were a speed bump for me.

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I must admit up front in the interest of full disclosure that I bought this book because the hero is named Alton. An unusual name that I happen to share thanks to my mother. However, once I started the book, I was hooked. A fast paced, interesting and well told story. Excellent dialogue with lots of humor included. Alton is hired to track down a missing father for a bone marrow transplant. But things are never as simple as they seem. Quirky characters, plot twists, excellent descriptive details make this a good read. De Maria sets the scene so well that it is like being there. He describes the locale so clearly that I found it reminiscent of Louis Lamour, except Staten Island rather than Wyoming. The PI, Alton Rhode, reminds me a little of Travis Magee.

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Lawrence De Maria's crackling suspense yarn keeps the reader in thrall as first-person narrator Alton Rhode -- a cop turned soldier turned PI -- tries to hunt down a missing father whose daughter needs a bone marrow transplant to beat leukemia. Billy Capriati is the father and Rhode, just returned from combat and needing a client for his new PI business on Staten Island, takes on the case from the seductive Ellen James, a model and sometime actress devoted to her ailing 14-year-old daughter.

There's not much to go on, and as Rhode tries to track down the missing Capriati based on the few traces from his childhood and college days in Staten Island, he finds himself getting some unwanted attention from local Russian and Italian mobsters, who seem to have something to do with the sudden disappearance of Capriati shortly after the affair that left Ellen James with a daughter.

Both the narration and the dialogue are alive with wit and energy as De Maria, a longtime reporter for the New York Times, keeps the pace going through this relatively short (218 pages) thriller. Rhode is a sympathetic character possessed of a reckless integrity that makes him a soft touch for a part-time thug who is tailing him and a less sympathetic conspirator who dupes him. He takes romance where he can find it, falling not only for his client but for a swimming instructor/philosophy teacher at the college where he begins his search for Capriati.

De Maria renders the quirky charm of New York's forgotten borough with the affection of a native and also offers another convincing portrayal of Florida, the primary setting for his earlier Sound of Blood mystery, as Rhode closes in on his quarry. Telling details and vivid descriptions make both settings come alive.

There are numerous twists in the plot, some more convincing than others, but once you're along for the ride it's a simple matter to suspend disbelief as called upon. The plot needed perhaps one more layer or clever twist to qualify as a full-fledged novel, but in the age of e-books we no longer have to worry about length or complexity as long as the author, as he does in this case, serves up a completely satisfying read.

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I enjoyed reading the first Alton Rhodes book in this series. The main character, a veteran, is new to his career as a Private Investigator. He is a complex, likable, realistic character. The book has some nice twists and moves at a nice pace. I rate it a 4.5 star book; the level of violence kept it from being a 5 star book for me. I've already started reading the 2nd book in the series: "Laura Lee" and I'm enjoying it too. Recommend this book.

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This is a solid whodunnit with a PI, Alton Rhode who is somewhat reminiscent of Chandler's Phillip Marlowe -- the noble PI who goes out on a limb to save a damsel in distress. In this case it is a pair of damsels, mother and daughter. He gets beat up a lot by gangs of thugs, etc. Nicely written, I would read another in this series

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A very entertining P.I. novel, well written with a very believable good-guy central character. That it is set in Staten Island is interesting, and a refreshing change to the genre. This book has very well developed characters, anad a refreshingly interesting plot with plenty of logical but unexpected twists.Her's the bottom line: I'll be buying more of De Maria's books.

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Excellent specimen of well-written private eye fiction. Once I started, couldn't put it down. The main character has a nice, self-deprecating wit, and doesn't do off the deep end when he gets bamboozled; simply tries to put things right. A bit of a kicker ending, though I think the writer gave us enough clues that it shouldn't be too surprising. Altogether, highly recommended. Am now reading next book in series.

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Started a little slow, I almost bailed, but I am glad I stuck with it because it got much better. Some very good plot twists and interesting characters - entertaining, suspenseful, humorous, and a sense of place. The story kept me thinking and engaged once I got past the first few chapters. It is an interesting mix of wit and suspense. Rating: not a 5. Better than a 3 - so I give it a four - and would recommend the book.

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Entertaining, suspenseful, face-paced read with both interesting characters and well-developed sense of place. Staten Island is now more than just a ferry. The place itself came alive and I found myself on Google maps locating the points of interest mentioned in the book. The story line kept me thinking and engaged and up much later than I would have expected. One of my measures of a book is how much sleep I lose when reading it; I was turning pages well into the middle of the night. I've read the three Alton Rhode books and am waiting for the next!